What's New/Page History

What's New

-- November 13, 2001

Here's an interesting link in honor of yesterday's plane crash in New York: Air Disaster

-- September 15, 2001

Gamespy has a list of useful links if you'd like to help. I'll repeat them here. Note: please double check all links before making any online donations. Don't let online scam artists take advantage of your compassion.

Links

Note: many of the following sites are experiencing high traffic, so you may need to try them a few times or try different sites for information.

My heart goes out to the people affected by the attacks in America today. The attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Somerset, Pennsylvania, (apparently intended for Camp David, more likely a failed attempt for Washington DC) are a shocking and frustrating event. These are high-profile attacks intended to elicit attention...to what?

After today's attack, President George W. Bush should realize that his SDI plan to defend American interests is all wrong. I've thought threats against US targets would be from bombers such as in the previous attack on the World Trade Center. Now we all see that the harmless planes flying all the time over the US are potential weapons. No explosives, no high-tech weapons--just fanatical, suicidal manpower is needed. SDI will be ineffective against that threat. (I mean what would SDI do? Shoot down a plane over America that will go down into its American target anyway? Innocent lives are lost either way.)

I don't know what the solution is, short of a world-wide cooperative attitude; get everyone to realize they're part of a global society. However, I know SDI is an insignificant solution.

A more serious issue than anamorphic widescreen DVDs: Right now, there is a man named Sklyarov who faces criminal charges. His crime is against the recently enacted, yet unconstitutional, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA.) The problem with this act is that it outlaws creating technology that circumvents copyright protection even for "fair use." Sklyarov came to the USA from Russia to talk at a security conference, and was arrested. What's offensive is that he was arrested for knowing how to break Adobe's weak copy protection on their ebooks, and he faces spending 25 years in jail and a US $2,250,000. This seems blown out of proportion, and makes it obvious that the DMCA is unjust.

For more information about the case and how you can do something about it click on this link:

The Best of the Muppet Show DVDs finally arrived! How fun because there are a few Muppetisms on each disc, along with some trivia about a show, and a Muppet design note. Plus, there is an intro to each episode by Brian Henson. There are three shows on each disc, and ten discs total. I hope they'll make more available.

I should also note that last week, I went to The Museum of Television and Radio with my close friends Paul and Jennifer and their children. The museum has public screenings of Jim Henson's works, a changing schedule for a retrospective. That time, they showed Tales of the Tinkerdee, which has never been publicly shown before. It's a fairy tale made in 1962 with a (pre-frog) Kermit as narrator. Also shown was Kermit the Frog guest hosting Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in 1979. I went again last Sunday with Rita to see two more shows, one being The Frog Prince, which had some of the same characters as Tales of the Tinkerdee.

Since I'm on such a Jim Henson kick, here are some more Jim Henson-related products that I recently bought that I think are worth checking out:

Biography Close-Up: Sesame StreetThis is an hour and a half video showing the history of Sesame Street. Jim Henson's efforts are acknowledged briefly throughout the video.

Went, with my friends Heather and Colleen, to see Cirque du Soleil Dralion Saturday when it came to Boston. It was a wonderful show--somewhat the same and somewhat different than the show in Orlando. One nice thing about this show, compared to Orlando's show, is that this was a cozier affair--closer to the stage, which made it seem more personal. As usual, the music, costumes and acrobatics made the show spectacular.

-- August 8-9, 2001

Click on the following to sign the Wonka petition. The reason for this is that it's frustrating when a DVD of a reknown movie is released as an open matte transfer (or a pan & scan transfer for that matter) instead of an anamorphic widescreen transfer. Anamorphic widescreen is how we see the movie in theaters, and we should demand the same expereince for the home as well. The problem is some people feel cheated because widescreen movies don't fill their TV sets, and leave a black bar above and below the picture. But what they don't understand is that, with anamorphic widescreen, they get to see the whole picture instead of the additional dead space added with an open matte (or just the parts that were chopped to fit a TV set with pan & scan.) We need to sign this petition to send the message that we want anamorphic widescreen programs whenever possible. This case is especially frustrating because Warner Brothers originally announced that this DVD release would contain widescreen. Additionally, the first release of this disc came in both pan & scan and widescreen formats. Thank you.

-- August 5, 2001

I had to bid my cousin, Zivile, farewell today. She was visiting from Lithuania, and I overwhelmed her with the sights of America--especially a trip to Disney World. She's an excellent student of glass sculpture, having shown at four exhibits, so it was challenging to find places around here that had glass art that would impress her. NJM Studios in Portsmouth NH seemed to get the best reaction out of her. I hope she takes back some great stories along with the most pictures she's ever taken.

I received a notice in the mail that the Muppet Show DVDs will start shipping August 13, having been on "back-order!"

-- July 23, 2001

Oh, oh. My roommate figured out that because we get cable modem, we also get basic cable TV. He's wired the cable to the TV and it works. I think it's the beginning of the end, considering how productive we've been with our time without TV, and how TV tends to mesmorize us.

Here's a follow-up message on The Muppet Show DVD set.

From: tlcsmail@timelifecs.com
Dear Vitas Povilaitis:
Thank you for your prompt response.
You can get THE VERY BEST OF THE MUPPET SHOW 10 VOLUME DVD SET for $175.00 with
$3.99 shipping and handling. The item number is 15837-9. I believe the 10
volume DVD is the same as the 15 volume video cassette. I do know we only have
10 volumes for sale in the DVD format.
We look forward to your order.
Sincerely,
Kay Marano
Customer Service/Internet

-- July 21, 2001

Here's some exciting news from Time-Life, considering I'm a Jim Henson fan, and I want to see as many episodes of The Muppet Show on DVD released as possible by spreading the word and encouraging you to buy them.

From: tlcsmail@timelifecs.com
Dear Vitas Povilaitis:
Thank you for taking the time to write. It is my pleasure to be of assistance.
THE VERY BEST OF THE MUPPET SHOW DVD is now available for purchase, though it
is not on our web-site. The DVDs are priced at $24.99 with $3.99 shipping and
handling. You can place an order with a credit card (we accept Visa,
MasterCard, American Express or Discover) by calling Customer Service at 1-800-950-7887.
Representatives are available to assist you from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday
through Friday, ET. You can also send a check or money order, with your ordering
instructions, to our office at TIME LIFE, PO Box 85060, Richmond, VA 23285-5060.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Kay Marano
Customer Service/Internet

-- June 21, 2001

I have to voice my peeve here. I went to see the movie Atlantis in Woburn's Showcase Cinema theater last week. I was disappointed with the sound; it had a warble that sounded like a bad MP3 encoding throughout the whole thing. My dissappointment is with two things: 1) that the new digital projection technology is a step down, and 2) that no one who works at the theater calibrated the new movie thereby noticing and fixing the problem in the first place. Last month, I saw Shrek at a theater in Poughkeepsie. I enjoyed that presentation but noticed at two moments a line of static across the middle of the screen, like a distortion you'd see while watching broadcast TV.

It used to be that you'd go out to experience something better than you'd get at home.

Not that my home system is perfect. Though the TV set is wonderful, the DVD player occassionally flakes out on me and glitches for some mysterious reason. Sometimes turning it off then back on fixes the problem, sometimes giving it up for a day will work, sometimes wait a little longer. Not sure what causes the problem (software glitch? overheating? flaw on the disc?) and what clears it up.

-- February 14, 2001

I thought I'd share some passing thoughts about some films I like:

Strange Days: This is good movie that seems underrated. Set on the last few days of New Year's 2000 in LA, we follow a character dealing in illegal recordings of other people's experiences. He's everyone's buddy and gets cought up in a web of intrigue that involves the people close to him. The thing about this movie is that it draws the viewer into the movie and takes the viewer on a roller coaster ride of visuals and emotions.

Gigot: This is a story about a mute hobo who befriends a young girl. It stars Jackie Gleason, who is generally thought of as a comedian, but gives a great performance communicating thoughts and emotions without saying a word. I saw this when I was a child, and I would love to see it again, but it's not available on DVD nor video. I hope a movie studio does a Jackie Gleason retrospective DVD collection.

The Muppet Movie: Here's a fictional movie about how the muppets, led by Kermit the Frog, got their start in show business. It was a simple, self-aware film that touches on what makes muppets so special to the young-at-heart. It'll be released later this year, but it's so frustrating to see small companies release their treasures so slowly. I wish they had the resources of the big studios who can put out special edition DVD's whenever they feel like.

Warner Brothers Loony Toons: I've been told a complete collection of Loony Toons cartoons (with characters like Bugs Bunny) had been released on laser disc and has been long discontinued. I'd love to see this come to DVD. I'm an animation fan, and I those cartoons have, not only excellent artistry, but a timeless humor as well.

Love is a fleeting event. Though the attraction to the feeling and idea of love can last such a long time, love comes from within. Another person can only be a catalyst for these feelings, not the cause. To nurture love for another person, one must take the person as is and find the good, heart-warming experiences from that. One cannot change a person--one must not change a person, for that takes away from the person--takes away from the original catalyst.

Love is a good feeling, and a harsh teacher. To keep those good feelings alive, one must overcome cynicism and selfishness. That is very hard to do because we want to be rewarded and acknowledged for our efforts of loving. The fact of the matter is that we'll seldom see the results of our loving, and we must have faith that it has a good effect, because it does--even if we don't see it. What goes around, comes around.

-- November 18, 2000

I've been reading The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan for a while. At book seven, I've finally given up on the series because it feels like the story has been dragging. In fact, it feels like he just cuts and pastes sections of the book, because the characters never really learn and grow, but keep expressing the same thought processes for every new situation.

In the meantime, I've been reading Dave Sim's editorials. He's the writer for Cerebus, and is exploring the character of Ernest Hemingway. He observes that Hemingway is a writer in the sense that he writes and writes and writes.

I was starting to feel the same way about Robert Jordan, who even admits in his "about the author" section of his books: "He has been writing since 1977 and intends to continue until they nail shut his coffin."

Both these men are very Zen-like in their approach to writing: writing for the sake of writing, but not very inspirational for me as a reader. I read works of fiction because I want to be drawn into a new world unlike my own. I certainly do not read for the sake of reading.

So what's the connection? Dave Sim mentioned that Robert Jordan is a character in Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Sure enough, a quick search on the Internet reveals that Robert Jordan is a pseudonym of James Rigney, Jr.--no doubt, an inspired reader of Ernest Hemingway.

Moderator: <Ishamael> to <Moderator> What made you decide on Robert Jordan as your pseudonym? Is it
Hemingway?
RobertJordan: No, it wasn't Hemingway. I simply wanted to separate the different kinds of books that I wrote
with different names, and I made lists of names with my real initials and picked one name from one list and one
from another, and Robert Jordan was one of the names that popped out.

Though I would recommend reading the first book of the series, "The Eye of the World," because Robert Jordan does create an interesting setting about a young man who sets off with his companions to discover the world and to save it from a growing evil, perhaps breaking it himself in the process.

If you'd like to buy that book, buy through one of these links. I'm going to experiment with being a affiliate member and will eventually create fan pages for my favorite books.

I'm surprised, now that I have a nice DVD collection, that I like recorded TV shows as much as I like movies. It feels like movies have the same rhythm and that TV shows break out of it. I especially like the X-Files, Kindred: The Embraced and British TV's Men Behaving Badly.

Sign this petition (http://b5petition.ii.net) so we can have Babylon 5 on DVD as well. I've never seen it straight through, so it'll be a treat to get it on DVD and watch it at my own pace.

Oh, the TV doesn't have such a good deinterlacer as I would've liked. It looks great for DVD. However, when playing video tapes through the VCR, the images look like low-res, pixelated images. I'm thinking that, perhaps, the DVDO is worth looking into. There's a buzz about its excellent deinterlacer.

Went out with my dear friend to Nasturtiums in Newburyport last Saturday. This is a lovely, fancy restaurant with a flower theme--as in edible flowers served in all the food. Most novel was the desert we shared, Nasturtiums Flower Pot which was a glass flower pot layered with white chocolate pudding and Oreo cookie crumbs with flowers poking out the top of it making it look like a real flower pot.

Got to visit my buddy Steve in Seattle, with a side-trip to Vancouver, Canada, since my last update. Also went to Provincetown with Frank.

-- July 24, 2000

Well, I finally sprung for a decent system on which to play my DVD's. I bought the Panasonic CT-34WX50 34" widescreen progressive scan TV, and a Panasonic H1000 progressive scan DVD player to complement it. I also bought a nice Salamander Synergy TV stand--cherry wood with black trim.

Unlike the CT-34WDM60, this set comes with NTSC tuners and is cheaper! (Not that the tuners will do me any good in my basement apartment where reception is horrible. But there's always cable TV...)

Here are my thoughts beyond the other things you can find on the Net about these products. I was surprised that the menus for the TV contains an option to indicate which way the TV is facing to take into account the geo-magnetic force of the earth. This is also the menu that degausses the TV. The TV does a great job changing an interlaced image to progressive scan. I don't really notice a difference between the progressive and non-progressive outputs from the DVD player. Given the limitations of zoom modes described below, it may have been better if I'd have just bought a cheaper DVD player. (Although the salesmen at Cameras Inc., where I bought the items, said they display was pixilated out of the progressive output of the DVD player. But I think they were just having problem with the source material, Titanic, which isn't such a good transfer to begin with, or the menus may not look so good on a better display.)

One thing I noticed is that with a DVD like Titanic, which is a widescreen, non-anamorphic DVD, I get more zoom modes from the non-progressive inputs on the TV, which means I'd have to hook up the DVD player to both the progressive and non-progressive connections to get all the display options. The non-progressive inputs on the TV give me: automatic, normal, just, and zoom--zoom being perfect for non-anamorphic widescreen DVD's. Progressive just gives me normal and zoom (but not the same as the non-progressive zoom.) Good things both the TV and the DVD player have so many video connections.

A nice feature of the DVD player is that it frames a 4x3 DVD image so it has black bars on the sides when displayed on a widescreen TV through the progressive connections. Apparently, The normal case is that everything is stretched to fill the screen on progressive connections. (But imagine the way Titanic looks in that mode: a little rectangle in the middle of the widescreen. How disappointing that non-anamorphic DVD's exist at all--someone wasn't taking into account widescreen systems. I definitely have to hook up the S-Video connections to get to those better zoom modes!)

When I went to calibrate the TV using video essentials, I found that the TV automatically adjusts the black levels based on the amount of brightness in the picture. The other calibrations seemed perfect. Then I decided to keep the defaults because the picture looks great out of the box. It became a matter of either calibrating the set to technical perfection, or calibrating it to look pleasing, and I decided that I wanted to be pleased. After all, I didn't buy an entertainment system to tinker with it, like my computers, but to sit back and enjoy my DVD's.

The guys who delivered the set were in awe of Bug's Life that I used to check out the system when they set it up. I used The Matrix to inaugurate the set.

I know how hard it's been to find information about this equipment, so I hope this helps those of you on the Net looking to buy such a system. Feel free to ask questions.

-- June 30, 2000

Went to visit my friends Keith and Sarah (and their little son Jacob) last weekend in Hemet, California. Had fun doing Universal Studios having my friend James join us (who's trying to make a splash in the Biz), and San Diego Wild Animal Park . Most interesting was the Diamond Valley Lake (a reservoir) . I'm always interested in major engineering efforts, and this was a hugs reservoir built by blocking off two ends of a dry valley and filling it with water. Fortunately, they're taking into account wildlife preservation and tourism.

Just played through the Deus Ex demo. What fun! Definitely the kind of game I'd love to program myself were I in that industry. It's a conspiracy-based 3D game based on the Unreal engine. The first mission is based at the Statue of Liberty. It's the future, and terrorists infiltrated the U.S. secret police headquarters. As part of the secret police, your character, J.C. Denton, has to stop the terrorists. Actually, he has to rescue an agent at the base, and capture the terrorist leader at the top. I had a moment in which I wondered if the terrorists were really all that bad, and that's where the demo and, I presume, the game will shine: all those plot twists, wondering at your own unquestioning pursuit of the mission goals. Plus, there are many ways through the level: I felt I had to go back and try different tactics just to see how I'd handle it differently. The game will be in stores this week, and I have my order in! Enjoy! :-)

Went to visit Laura in Sarasota last month. Had a great time! I must say that I hate going to the beach up here because the sand is hot and gritty and the water is cold, but Siesta Beach is incredible with its dusty white sand that feels so good massaging my feet, and the heated ocean water. I wonder why people here don't move en masse there! Feeling good about my travels so far this year.

Had to replace my oil pan on the car. Grrr... How many bits do I have to replace on the Ford Taurus just to keep it going? I don't remember having so many problems with the ol' Dodge Omni. Fixing the air conditioner is next. Now if I could find a mechanic locally who won't try to charge double what repairs really should be, I'll be so happy. Anyone have any recommendations?

How about a Deep Thought:

You'll never be more successful than your manager. Choose well!

-- May 13, 2000

Added another Deep Thought. Many good ones come across the A Word A Day mailing list. Check it out at http://www.wordsmith.org/.

-- May 9, 2000

Not much of an update today. Went to Montreal last weekend, and enjoyed the fact that I can eat at good restaurants at 3:00 in the morning! How about that in New England, eh?!?!?!

Here's a link to funny movies. Careful if you're easily offended; their humor is crude.

Here's a link that sums up my quest for a decent TV for playing back my DVD's: High Definition Television (Comments by Richard Gillmann). Also, comments in the AVS Forum indicate that an HDTV with RGB inputs would be extremely flexible in that I could hook up a computer to it and have many display options in formating a movie to the screen. Also, I'd be able to use this dedicated computer to play back mp3's through the stereo, plug in an hdtv tuner, and play computer games all on my big screen! The drawback, that I see is how much I really want to tinker with the entertainment system--maybe all I really want to do is plug in a player and have it work automatically! And do I really want to boot Microsoft Windows to watch a movie?

I discovered that all tv sets stretch the signal coming in on the progressive input. They all display a 4:3 image properly coming in the other inputs, though. That means, if I get a progressive scan DVD player, I'd have to switch to non-progressive for 4:3 DVD's, or I'd have to get the more expensive Panasonic H1000 DVD player which inserts the black bars on the sides of a 4:3 movie for its progressive output.

Tip of the day: Look for notes from your long distance carrier on your local phone bill (if you combine the bills.) Last month, MCI slipped in a three line note that I didn't notice that they're raising their rates from 10 cents per minute to 17 cents per minute. And, of course, I've been making calls for a month and a half at that rate before the next bill comes where the increase is obvious! And to add insult to injury, I checked MCI's website and they offer new rates that are even better than what I had before that increase! What a scam to extract some extra money from lax, existing customers! This says something about brand loyalty, eh?

-- April 20, 2000

I'm excited seeing the movie at this link: Three Days of Deus Ex. Deus Ex, which is being worked on by my friend, Al Yarusso, and designed by a reknown game designer, Warren Spector, is looking like the kind of game I've always wanted to play--a first-person adventure game that inspires my sense of exploration. If you like computer games, check it out!

As long as I'm at it, here's another link worth checking out: A Black & White Site. Black and White is a bit of a simulation, where little people go about their daily lives if left on their own, and you take the role of a god and affect their lives, drawing power from their worship. (Look for "Monkey Whacking"! :-)

I'm expectantly waiting for those games to come out.

Also, been looking at HDTV for my apartment. Mostly, I want a system for playing back DVD's. Hard to look for this considering that most HDTV's are huge and all I really want is a small one for the little space I have. Here's a review of what I've found. My goal is to get the best picture quality out of DVD's for the lowest price given the small size of my living room.

The most promising one is the Panasonic CT34WDM60 . It has a crisp, clear 34" widescreen display with a line doubler for normal programing, and progressive (480p) inputs for the appropriate DVD player to give me the best possible DVD picture.

Another contender seems to be the Toshiba cw34x92, but it's too new for reviews, and the picture didn't seem as good--kind of muddy. Also, the Mitsubishi wt46805 (46" widescreen DTV) looked promising and cheaper, but doesn't display 4:3 images properly through the progressive inputs, and is too big. Another review link.

Of course, I need to match the DTV with a decent DVD player. For this, I'd need progressive outputs. Though, all those DTV's looked really good with just a regular DVD player thanks to the line doubler in the DTV. I wonder if a progressive player really buys me anything. The Panasonic A120 seems to be the best low end one. And here are the progressive DVD players:

Panasonic h1000 -- Panasonic's player: The most expensive consumer progressive DVD player, has the advantage of letterboxing the sides of a 4:3 movie so that it displays properly on a DTV like the Mitsubishi.

I'm still shopping around. This still looks a bit much in price. Leave me an email at vitas@GracefulBoot.com if you can add to my knowledge or if you want to exchange information.

My previous ISP frustrated me by whittling away at the services I signed up for. Mine was considered a legacy account.

I've moved my web page to a new host: Eskimo.com. They offer a full shell account with many of the tools, and fun stuff you'd expect. Plus they offer virtual domain hosting, which means my old BBS namesake, Graceful Boot, will finally have a web presence, WWW.GracefulBoot.COM! Depending on how inspired I feel, I'll create a fun BBS type web site, or I'll just bask in the vanity of my own domain name.

I updated my links page. I updated Nikademus' battleship links. The old links broke, plus he added to his fiction so check it out! Deleted the link to Tech Talk because the last time I went there, I couldn't get any link to work correctly. Maybe they didn't test with Netscape. I didn't bother finding out because I don't want to work for my entertainment! Added a link to the Black and White web page. This promises to be a fun game by the creator of the original Populous. It's a game in which you can sit back and watch a society, or in which you take a role as a god and affect their lives.

Oh! If you're reading this, you should know that my email is vitas@eskimo.com, but that will change to vitas@gracefulboot.com as soon as I'm set up here.

-- February 25, 2000

My third call to Verio/Servtech technical support reached someone who's actually intelligent. (This call occurred after my call yesterday when my issue was to be escalated to senior staff who will either get back to me or solve the problem within 24 hours. That I niether received a call nor had my problem solved tells you something, eh?) I reached Mike who simply deleted my .forward file off their mail server. (They're the only ones who could access the server. I certainly couldn't, or I would've solved this problem myself.)

So, after sending numerous email to staff at Servtech which were ignored, and three calls to their technical support line, I reached someone who knew how to delete a .forward file off the server. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about this.

Thank you Mike! I'll ask for you by name from now on! :-)

My vitas@servtech.com email address works now, but I'll check the vitas@bostonoffice.com address for a while.

-- February 23, 2000

Servtech has updated their email server to use IMAP, and my ".forward" file that I created over five years ago and didn't work, all of a sudden works. All my email is being forwarded to vitas@cci.com which bounces my email since I no longer have an account there. I tried removing the .forward file and still have the problem, so I'm guessing this information has been cached and needs to be manually refreshed.

I contacted Verio (Servtech's parent company) technical support, and I hope they'll fix the problem soon, though it's been very hard to contact someone who can help. Please be patient and try my temporary account: vitas@bostonoffice.com.

I'll update this page when I know email works again.

-- February 1, 2000

Three weeks ago, I had a skiing accident. I fell down and twisted my leg. I should have gone for a refresher course, after not having done it for three years. I learned to ski on the beginner's slope at Bristol Mountain in central New York. It was a long, gradual, twisty slope. This time, I skied at Wachusset, which is a long, gradual, twisty slope, that gets steeper at the end. I had a hard time controlling my speed, so FWAP-TWIST!

I saw an orthopedic today. He said I stretched a couple tendons, and that with regular light excercize, I'll be ok. It was most frustrating to be on crutches the first few weeks. I love my independence, and crutches just rob me from being able to do all the things I take for granted, like taking my tray to my table at the cafeteria, taking out the garbage, doing laundry, and so on.

Yow! I'm totally freaked out!

I read that there was a commercial during the Superbowl showing Christopher Reeves walking. Well, I had the strangest dream last morning... I was walking by a famous person walking by me. He had a pleasant smile on his face, but I couldn't remember his name, and I thought it was odd to see him walking. It wasn't until after I woke up that I recognized him as Christopher Reeves! Then I read that article. I had no idea about the commercial until after the dream! I mean, I don't even think about the man, so it's such a coincidence to have this happen.

This has me totally rattled. I know my dreams have told me things about real life before, but this has no connection to my life, does it? what do you think this means?

How about a deep thought:

Imagine an ethreal bubble forming in the center of your brain. It slowly expands and, like a spider's web, collects unwanted and irrelevant thoughts. It keeps expanding until it's bigger than your head, then the bubble detaches and drifts away on the wind. The unwanted thoughts drop off and fall into the minds of people who want those thoughts, and there those thoughts will thrive. The weeds in my garden, are the flowers of someone else's garden. Not to worry... friends will be friends, family will be family, lovers will be lovers, and the universe goes on despite whether they're in your thoughts. They understand that life is lived in the moment--sharing the joy of company. Life is not at all in the longing--spinning your wheels over things that are not and will never be.

-- January 1, 2000

Happy New Year! Glad to see everyone survived Y2K computer glitches. They had you all worried and what happened? Nadda. We programmers did a good job covering our butts! ;-)

I had a great holiday thanks to my dear friend, Paul, who supplied me with enough Half-Life deathmatches and AD&D role-playing to keep me happy for the period of time until we next meet. :-) His was the coolest Christmas gift: a sweatshirt that he made with screenshots from Half-Life. The back is an exploding heliocopter with the phrase: "Friends don't let friends deathmatch drunk." The front has a soldier shooting towards the viewer with my nickname: "Hunter." He made one for himself too, with his nickname: "Lurker." (As much as I hate losing to lurkers, I think it'll be a boring game if both of us lurked!)

So, what's new? I've taken on a roommate, Dante--a cool guy from an uncool town which will remain nameless, but less cool than Rochester (if you're trying to guess.)

One new year's resolution is to travel at least once a month away from Massachusetts, so send me some cool and compelling ideas!

My old computer is flaking out, so I'm getting a new computer. I'm excited about it because it has some great specs. Here's a link to the specs for the new components, including the technical information that helped persuade me to select the components. I'm getting this sucker assembled at PC's For Everyone. I'm sick of tinkering with the hardware of a home-built system--let someone else be responsible this time! And it's a local company...supporting the home town is always a good thing. (I'm reusing some components from the old computer, like my Soundblaster Live!, Toshiba DVD-ROM drive, second NIC for a gateway, an Adaptec SCSI card for my SCSI Ricoh CD Re-writeable drive, keyboard, and Sony 19" Trinitron monitor.) Whew! Does this system kick or what? Well, it could be better, but it's a good start! :-)